Turkey, Sweden, Finland discuss NATO membership issue of Nordic nations

Europe, Middle East, News June 21, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

NATO convened talks between Sweden, Finland, and Turkey to address Ankara’s opposition to the two Nordic countries joining the military alliance and discuss ways to make progress on the NATO membership applications by Finland and Sweden.

The trilateral negotiation talks were held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on June 21. The meeting was chaired by the Director of the NATO Secretary General’s Private Office, Stian Jenssen. The Turkish delegation was led by Presidential Spokesperson and Special Advisor to the President, Ambassador İbrahim Kalın; the Finnish delegation was led by the Director of Foreign and Security Policy Petri Hakkarainen; and the Swedish delegation was led by State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the Security Policy Council, Oscar Stenström.

In the post-meeting press briefing, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg described the talks as ‘constructive’ and that the negotiation would continue in the coming days. The alliance is attempting and urging all parties to resolve the standoff prior the next week’s NATO leader’s summit in Madrid.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “I welcome the constructive meeting held today on the historic applications by Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”

“Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO would make the Alliance stronger and the whole Euro-Atlantic area more secure. Türkiye has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address. So we will continue our talks on Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, and I look forward to finding a way forward as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg added.

While speaking on the matter, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that “The Madrid NATO summit is not a deadline, so our negotiations will continue.” He further added that “the existence of terrorist organizations must end in those countries. That is what we expect both from Finland and Sweden.”

According to some media reports, Turkey had previously declined NATO’s invitation to host the trilateral talks, hence the talks were held at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland gave up their neutral stance and applied to join the NATO alliance last month. The two countries need unanimous approval from all 30 NATO member states before they can join the alliance. Turkey has blocked the progress on accession talks by labeling the two Nordic states “terrorist incubators”, while specifically targeting Sweden as it failed to crack down the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), an armed militia that has fought with the Turkish state since the 1980s.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly expressed on several occasions that Turkey is “not in favor” of letting the two Nordic states into the NATO alliance. He compared their application to the time when NATO added, Turkey’s regional rival, Greece into the alliance. The Turkish president pointed out that NATO’s decision to accept Greece as a member in 1952 was a “mistake”.

Erdogan added that “Because in the past, previous Turkish governments made a mistake about Greece’s membership, and you know Greece’s current attitude against Turkey.”

^{Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavesto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde in Berlin, Germany, on May 14, 2022. (Image Credit: Twitter/@AnnLinde)}

Turkey holds a significant say in NATO’s decision-making as it is one of the older members of the alliance with a significantly large share of troops. Turkey joined the NATO alliance in 1952 and holds the second-largest military after the United States in the 30-member alliance.

Although the Turkish administration has not directly claimed that they would block any attempts by Finland and Sweden to join NATO, Turkey’s disapproval could pose a serious problem for Sweden and Finland, especially at a time when other NATO member states want to approve their application as soon as possible.